Friday, February 6, 2015

Audio Books


Are you a fan of the audiobook? I really enjoy listening them, but I've learned I can only listen to certain genres. Or should I say I can't listen to anything that has suspenseful action/adventure type moments--the kind where, if you're reading, you're going to read faster because the action calls for it. The narrators tend to read at the same pace--I suppose so general listeners can easily keep up with the tale. But it was very hard for me to enjoy the story because I wanted to "listen" faster.

So I choose women's fiction instead. Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Danielle Steele are favorites. I also like to listen to the Harry Potter books too, although I've only gotten through three of them I think.

I think last year we talked about free books, and I might have mentioned LibriVox--free audiobooks.

Most of you know I have a thing for Sherlock at the moment, the BBC TV series. I thought reading the source material would be a good thing. Since the original Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are in the public domain, audio versions of the books are available from LibriVox.

So I downloaded them. I started listening to them a while back but stopped. I understand that it's not easy to read for hours on end to create an audio recording, but the narrator couldn't keep his accents straight and it irritated me, so I quit listening. But the hankering to hear the original texts got me again, so, ignoring the idiosyncrasies, I'm listening once more. I'm three adventures in. On the other hand, I might have to go in search of an authentic audiobook with a British narrator because Sherlock Holmes with an American accent just doesn't quite do it for me.


But Benedict Cumberbatch, who has a lovely deep voice and plays the titular character in the BBC's Sherlock, has narrated a series of four Sherlock Holmes adventures written by John Taylor (among other things). He does a fab job with altering his voice for various characters and is able to maintain various accents as well. They're available on YouTube if you're so inclined.

Are you an audiobook listener?


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